Winning  The  New  World.  III. 


Missions 

to  the 

Heathen 


•BY- 


L.   C.    BARNES,    D.  D. 


Published 


American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society 
23  East  26th  Street     :     :     (Madison  Square)  New  York 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


Winning  The  New  World.  III. 


omissions  to 
the  Heathen 

BY 

L.   C.   BARNES,   D.D. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society" 

23  East  26th  Street  (Madison  Square)  New  York 


Seven  Enterprises  Combined 


OUR  denomination  is  to  be   congratulated  on  its  way  of 
conducting    its    general   work   for   Winning   The  New 
World.     Other  communions  in  a  number  of  cases,  have 
entirely  distinct  Societies  and  Boards  for  carrying  on  the  various 
enterprises  enumerated  below.     We  have  but  one  organization, 
one  office,  and  one  set  of  officers  for  all  these. 

1.  Founding  Christianity  in  New  Regions:     We  are 

now  helping  churches  in  the  new,  swiftly  crystalizing  West 
to  sustain  there  about  one  thousand  missionaries.  An  investi- 
tigation  just  completed  in  one  state  by  the  Federal  Council  of 
the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America  (thirty-two  denomina- 
tions) finds  more  than  one  hundred  towns  there  without  any 
regular  religious  work,  either  Protestant  or  Catholic. 

2.  Christian  Education  of  Africans:     One-seventh  of 
our  fellow  citizens  who  are  only  one-seventh  as  far  as  Anglo- 
Saxons  from  completely  pagan  ancestors. 

3.  Christianizing   Heathen   Indians:     Many  bands  of 
American  savages  (at  least  thirty  in  the  United  States)  are 
still  untouched  by  any  form  of  Christianity  after  four  hundred 
years  of   spoliation  by  whites,  and  one  hundred  years  of 
missions  to  heathen  afar. 

4.  Conversion   of    Lathi   Americans :       Great  masses 
just  out  from  under  four  hundred  years  of  Spanish  misrule 
are  now  incorporated  with  us.     According  to  Roman  Cath- 
olic authority  they  were  never  yet  Christianized. 

5.  Gospel  Americanizing  of   Foreigners :     They  are 
gaining  on  us  faster  than  ever,  and  now  mostly  from  non- 
evangelized    classes   in    Europe — Jews  Greeks,  Latins,— 
non-Christian  Asiatics,  too,  scores  of  thousands. 

6.  Chapel   Building   for   Mission   Churches:     They 
are  helpless  without  buildings  and  are  unable  to  build  with- 
out help. 

7.  Salvation  of  Congested  Cities  :     In  co-operation  with 
the  local  forces  of  Christ,  which  are  hard  bestead,  almost 
overwhelmed  by  the  prodigious  developments  cf  our  day. 


HE  following  is  not  an  account  of  the 
work,  among  the  heathen,  which  is 
now  being  conducted  by  the  Ameri- 
can Baptist  Home  Mission  Society, 
it  is  but  a  single  instance  selected 

because    it  is  one  of  the    more  recent 

and  least  well  known. 

US 

We  have  1 1  missionaries  to  the 
American  heathen  (not  counting  our 
missionaries  to  Chinese  and  Japanese 
heathen  in  America)  wording  among 
14  Indian  tribes.  There  are  1,038 
communicants  in  our  "Blanket  Indian'  Churches, 
recently  rescued  from  pagan  darkness.  In  the  Indian 
churches  of  somewhat  longer  establishment  there  are 
3,21 1  members.  Even  these  have  been  brought  out 
of  paganism  more  recently  than  many  of  the  churches 
in  Burma  and  other  parts  of  East  India.  They  are 
largely  self-supporting.  In  the  nature  of  the  case,  it 
is  our  high  privilege  and  a  necessity  for  a  time  yet  to 
provide  some  missionary  superintendence  and  Christian 
education.  Indian  University  at  Muskogee,  Oklahoma, 
is  our  chief  institution  of  learning  among  them. 


Recent  investigation  shows  that  after  four  hundred 
years  of  spoliation  by  white  men  in  America  and  one 
hundred  years  of  missions  to  heathen  afar  there  are  yet 
some  forty  tribes  and  bands  in  the  United  States 
without  Christian  work  among  them  of  any  denomina- 
tion. Arrangements  are  now  being  made  to  reach 
these.  As  Baptists  We  must  not  fail  to  take  our  share 
of  the  new  work  among  the  heathen  whose  plight  cries 
to  high  heaven  in  the  ears  of  every  child  of  God  who 
has  any  sense  of  justice,  to  say  nothing  of  Christ-like 
brotherhood,  in  "this  glorious  land  of  ours" — OURS  ? 


Missionaries  to  the  Heathen 

By  Lemuel  Call  Barnes,  D.D. 

I.       A  PAGAN   LAND 

[T  is  at  the  heart  of  the  great  central  plateau 
of  the  continent,  ranging  from  five  to  seven 
thousand  feet  above  sea  level,  not  counting 
ranges  and  peaks  running  three  to  four 
thousand  feet  farther  heavenward.  On  this 
lofty  platform  the  highest  development  of 
pre-Columbian  life  took  place  within  the  present  territory  of  the 
United  States.  Ages  before  the  Genoese  started  on  his  crazy 
sail  for  India,  people  inhabited  this  plateau  who  were  at  least 
semi-civilized.  There  are  indications  that  the  country  was  less 
arid  at  that  time  and  that  it  was  inhabited  by  many  more  people 
tht.~  than  now,  as  well  as  by  people  farther  advanced.  Charred 
ears  of  corn  embedded  in  lava  along  with  implements  of  civiliza- 
tion suggest  that  possibly  volcanic  disturbances  changed  the  face 
of  nature,  nearly  obliterating  the  trace  of  man. 

Even  yet,  however,  the  Indians  who  in  their  primitive  state 
are  most  nearly  civilized  live  on  this  plateau,  possibly  the  rem- 
nants of  the  ancient  population.  Our  Woman's  Home  Mission 
Society  has  a  mission  among  the  most  remote  and  uncontamin- 
ated  of  the  Pueblo  or  town-making  Indians,  the  Hopi  of  north- 
eastern Arizona.  It  is  in  every  sense  of  the  word  a  pagan  land, 
a  land  of  villages  as  the  whole  plateau  once  was.  The  Hopi 
Reservation  is  entirely  surrounded  by  the  Navaho  Reservation 
in  northeastern  Arizona  and  northwestern  New  Mexico.  The 
latter  Reservation  is  about  the  size  of  Connecticut  and  New 
Jersey  ccmbined.  It  is  the  largest  of  the  Indian  Reservations. 

Every  perennial  spring  and  brook  is  precious  in  this  country. 
Even  wells  are  marked  on  Government  maps.  Every  wayfarer 
must  be  careful  to  reach  water  for  a  camping  place,  if  possible. 
The  missionary  must  carry  a  large  canteen  of  water  on  his 
journeys  for  the  sake  of  long  stretches  where  none  can  be  found, 
even  of  the  alkaline  variety,  which  is  probably  the  only  kind  he 
can  bring  from  his  home.  But  wherever  there  is  water  will  be 
found  human  habitations,  the  larger  the  oasis  the  greater  the 


population.  In  the  foot  hills  of  the  great  ranges  there  are  places 
of  perpetual  verdure  and  beauty.  Yet  even  there,  as  in  the 
valley  of  the  Nile,  if  one  lifts  his  eyes  he  looks  out  upon  arid 
wastes  not  far  away.  In  the  Navaho  country,  however,  they 
are  not  absolute  wastes.  There  is  pasturage,  at  least  at  seasons 
of  the  year,  over  nearly  all  the  land.  If  water  were  more 
abundant  there  would  be  less  hope  of  keeping  white  men  from 
seizing  this  first  and  last  stronghold  of  the  brown  men  in  our 
country. 

II.       HEATHEN  PEOPLE 

The  Navahos  were  pioneers  in  our  country  long  before  the 
Spaniards  or  the  English  or  the  French.  They  came  down  like 
other  tribes  of  the  Athabascan  race  from  the  direction  of 
Alaska,  bringing  with  them  a  tradition  that  their  forefathers 
had  crossed  a  narrow  sea.  Some  think  that  the  happy  marriage 
of  one  of  the  Indians  with  a  Chinaman  not  far  from  where  these 
words  are  written  is  but  the  coming  together  again  of  long 
separated  members  of  the  human  family. 

The  Government  has  made  but  one  attempt  to  relocate  the 
Navahos,  and  soon  abandoned  that.  Their  present  reservation 
is  the  region  in  which  the  Spaniards  found  them  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  Navaho  pioneers  had  become  old  settlers  genera- 
tions before  the  Pilgrims  landed.  For  centuries  they  were  great 
marauders,  living  largely  by  depredations  on  the  agricultural 
Pueblo  Indians,  and  later  on  Mexicans  and  other  Americans. 
But  they  somewhat  rapidly  advanced  from  savagery  to  bar- 
barism. On  account  of  their  self-defense  and  independence 
many  Pueblos  and  members  of  other  tribes  joined  them  for  the 
sake  of  greater  safety  from  savages  both  red  and  white.  Hence 
they  acquired  some  of  the  advantages  which  commonly  go  with 
amalgamation  of  races,  as  notably  in  case  of  the  Anglo-Saxon- 
Keltic-Danish-Norman,  etc.,  in  England,  and  of  the  unnum- 
bered races  in  the  United  States.  It  is  commonly  believed  that 
the  Navahos  first  obtained  sheep  by  raiding  and  that  they 
learned  the  art  of  weaving  from  the  Pueblos.  The  raising  and 
care  of  sheep  has  become  the  chief  occupation  of  the  men,  and 
the  weaving  of  blankets  the  chief  occupation  of  women.  Next 
to  sheep,  horses  are  the  great  possession  and  means  of  trade. 
There  is  considerable  agriculture,  however,  by  means  of  prim- 
itive irrigation  ditches.  Corn  is  the  principal  crop.  Beans, 
melons  and  peaches  stand  next  in  favor.  The  only  other  oc- 
cupation attracting  much  attention  is  silversmithing.  By  means 


NAVAHO     CHIEF     KITON 


of  crude  appliances  Mexican  and  United  States  coins  are  trans- 
formed into  bracelets,  spoons,  brooches  and  buckles.  Men  and 
women  both  are  fond  of  wearing  belts  adorned  with  as  many 
large  silver  disks  as  possible.  Bridles  also  are  decorated  with 
silver.  Their  silver  work  in  addition  to  being  moulded  is  en- 
graved. 

The  varied  industries  of  the  Navahos  mean  hard  work,  of 
which  they  are  not  afraid.  In  this  they  are  exceptional  among 
native  races.  They  cheerfully  hire  themselves  out  to  white 
men,  and  according  to  all  accounts  do  as  good  work  as  other 
laboring  men.  Every  home  has  its  simple  hand  loom,  where 


MOTHER     AND     CHILD     WEAVING    THE     FAMOUS     NAVAHO     BLANKETS 

the  women  patiently  toil,  having  prepared  and  dyed  the  wool, 
working  out  the  striking  patterns  of  the  famous  Navaho  blankets. 
As  a  "steamer  rug"  is  a  shawl,  so,  per  contra,  a  "Navaho 
blanket"  is  a  rug.  It  is  commonly  too  stiff  for  comfortable 
wear.  The  men  and  the  women  all  wear  blankets;  but  almost 
invariably  they  are  factory  made,  one  Navaho  blanket  selling 
for  enough  to  buy  two  or  three  factory  blankets.  The  trousers 
of  the  man  and  gowns  of  the  women  also  are  products  of  factory 
looms.  But  feet  are  mostly  clad  in  moccasins.  Men  as  well 
as  women  wear  their  hair  long.  The  men  tie  it  out  of  the  way 
with  a  coronal  fillet  of  some  gay  fabric.  The  hair  on  the  chin 
they  dispense  with.  We  found  by  the  trail  one  of  their  "tin 
razors,"  for  extracting  instead  of  cutting  the  beard. 

The  Navaho  house  is  called  a  hogan.  Some  are  building 
cabins  of  logs,  pressed  adobe  and  stone.  But  most  live  in  a 
domical  hut  of  rough  frame-work  covered  top  and  sides  with 
earth.  The  two  openings  are  a  doorway  and  a  smoke-hole. 


A     NAVAHO     HOGAN 

The  fire  is  built  on  the  earthen  floor.  In  one  instance  I  saw  a 
hood  and  smoke  pipe  over  the  fire,  made  of  tin  cans.  There  is 
no  room  for  tables,  chairs  or  bedstead.  Other  utensils  are  few 
and  simple.  Some  native  pottery  is  in  use.  They  frequently 
have  a  summer  hogan,  which  is  an  airy  booth,  either  detached 
or  serving  as  a  vestibule  of  the  winter  hogan. 

The  Navahos  are  heathen  in  the  original  sense  of  the  word; 
they  are  heath-men.  Their  calling  as  shepherds  in  an  arid 
country  requires  them  to  move  from  place  to  place.  They 
camp  for  the  time  in  the  most  convenient  region.  They  may  or 
may  not  live  near  their  cornfields.  Land  is  owned  in  common, 
but  occupation  and  improvements  give  a  sort  of  title.  Their 
nomadic  life  is  one  of  the  supreme  difficulties  in  the  way  of  their 
uplift  by  school,  mission  or  home  improvement.  For  instance, 
last  winter,  a  mission  located  near  one  of  their  most  permanent 
and  thickly  inhabited  neighborhoods  had  but  two  families  in 
residence.  They  are  in  the  patriarchal  stage  of  development, 
their  customs  illuminating  the  story  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and 
Jacob.  It  is  a  long  way  from  Abraham's  tent  to  the  city  of 
David.  If  we  can  help  to  shorten  it,  we  shall  be  working  with 
God  in  his  process  of  human  evolution. 

The  Navahos  are  further  advanced  in  some  vital  respects 
than  were  the  biblical  patriarchs.  In  the  matter  of  monogamy, 
concubinage  and  social  purity,  they  are  in  advance,  not  only 

of  most  aborgines,  but  also  of  the  most  resplendent  days  of  the 
Old  Testament.  Many  Indian  tribes  are  literally  rotting  with 
native  and  imported  vice.  The  worst  diseases,  I  am  informed 
by  Government  physicians,  are  unknown  among  the  Navahos, 
except  near  the  sooty  iron  trail  of  the  white  man.  Navaho 


women  are  not  in  any  respect  the^slaves  of  men.  They  do  not 
do  all  the  work,  as  in  many  tribes.  But  with  their  blanket 
weaving  they  are  industrially  the  equals  of  the  men.  In  domestic 
economy,  too,  they  are  equals  or  better.  The  control  of  the 
household  is  mainly  in  their  hands.  One  of  the  oddest  customs 
concerns  a  mother-in-law.  What  is  a  matter  of  superficial 
joking  with  white  people  is  a  deep-seated  reality  with  Navahos. 
Mother-in-law  and  son-in-law  must  never  see  each  other.  If 
they  do,  blindness  or  some  other  blight  is  sure  to  befall.  It 
is  everybody's  duty  to  give  sharp  warning  if  danger  of  a  meet- 
ing arises.  Even  after  reading  of  this  in  good  authorities  I 
could  hardly  believe  that  the  custom  still  rigidly  prevails.  I 
found  out  for  myself.  A  company  of  Indians  was  assembled 
in  our  mission  hall  while  I  preached  to  them  through  the  inter- 
preter. With  the  exception  of  one  or  two  young  bucks,  they 
were  behaving  with  great  decorum,  when  all  of  a  sudden  there 
were  exclamations  and  a  tremendous  hubbub.  I  could  not 
imagine  the  cause  till  I  was  told  that  a  mother-in-law  of  one  of 
my  auditors  approached  the  door.  Instantly  many  shouted  to 
warn  the  imperiled  parties.  The  man  within  pulled  a  hat  over 
his  eyes,  while  she  retreated.  To  avoid  this  constant  menace  a 
man  sometimes  marries  the  widowed  mother  of  his  prospective 
wife  before  marrying  her.  Then  they  are  both  his  wives  and 
there  is  no  mother-in-law. 

Their  superstitions  are  complicated  and  rank.  By  them  not 
only  is  progressive  beauty  of  character  rendered  impossible,  but 
life  itself  is  often  imperiled.  Their  medicine  man  is  both  doctor 
and  priest.  Their  method  of  attempting  to  cure  the  sick  is  by 
weird  incantations.  These  "sings"  as  they  are  popularly  named 
in  English  gather  a  crowd  together  and  last  throughout  the 
night.  According  to  all  accounts  they  must  be  demoralizing  to 
both  physical  and  mental  well  being.  "Sometimes  pertaining 
to  a  single  rite  there  are  two  hundred  songs  or  more  which  may 
not  be  sung  at  other  rites.*'  "One  error  made  in  singing  a  song 
may  be  fatal  to  the  efficiency  of  a  ceremony;  in  some  cases  the 
error  of  a  single  syllable  works  an  irreparable  injury." 

When  the  sick  person  is  sufficiently  wealthy  or  influential  the 
wild  revel  lasts  for  days.  Dr.  Mathews,  the  leading  student 
and  authority  as  to  Navaho  customs,  describes  their  great  med- 
icine dance  of  nine  days.  On  the  last  night  a  great  fire  is  built 
in  the  center  of  a  corral  and  eleven  ceremonial  dances  are  per- 
formed throughout  the  night.  The  following  is  his  description 
of  one  of  them: 

10 


"After  an  interval  of  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  the  dance  of 
the  great  plumed  arrow,  the  potent  healing  ceremony  of  the 
night,  began.  There  were  but  two  performers  ....  Each  bore 
in  his  hand  one  of  the  great  plumed  arrows.  While  they  were 
making  the  usual  circuits  around  the  fire,  the  patient  was  placed 
sitting  on  a  buffalo  robe  in  front  of  the  orchestra.  They  halted 
before  the  patient;  each  dancer  seized  his  arrow  between  his 
thumb  and  forefinger  about  eight  inches  from  the  tip,  held  the 
arrow  up  to  view,  giving  a  coyote-like  yelp,  as  if  to  say,  'So  far 
will  I  swallow  it,'  and  then  appeared  to  thrust  the  arrow  slowly 

11 


and  painfully  down  his  throat  as  far  as  indicated.  While  the 
arrows  seemed  still  to  be  stuck  in  their  throats,  they  danced  a 
chasse,  right  and  left,  with  short,  shuffling  steps.  Then  they 
withdrew  the  arrows,  and  held  them  up  to  view  as  before,  with 
triumphant  yelps,  as  if  to  say,  'So  far  have  I  swallowed  it.' 
Sympathizers  in  the  audience  yelped  in  response.  The  next 
thing  to  be  done  was  to  apply  the  arrows.  One  of  the  dancers 
advanced  to  the  patient,  and  to  the  soles  of  the  feet  of  the  latter 
he  pressed  the  magic  weapon  with  its  point  to  the  right,  and 
again  with  its  point  to  the  left.  In  a  similar  manner  he  treated 
the  knees,  hands,  abdomen,  back,  shoulders,  crown  and  mouth 
in  the  order  named,  giving  three  coyote-like  yelps  after  each 
application." 

Another  of  the  dances  is  like  the  performance  of  magicians 
who  apparently  make  a  plant  grow  before  your  eyes.  In  an- 
other dance,  nearly  naked  Indians  race  after  and  prod  them- 
selves and  each  other  with  flaming  firebrands.  These  medicine 
dances  are  the  religious  services  of  the  people.  Is  there  any 
need  for  missionaries  of  sane  religion  and  sanitary  healing? 

III.       HEROIC  MISSIONARIES 

It  requires  nothing  less  than  the  spirit  of  Christ  to  faithfully 
work  for  these  heathen  people  in  such  a  pagan  land.  It  re- 
quires also  strength  of  character  and  resourcefulness  little  short 
of  genius  to  carry  a  whole  Christian  civilization  into  such  an 
aboriginal  wilderness.  Away  from  all  the  appliances,  conveni- 
ences and  fellowship  of  life  which  even  the  remotest  village 
pastor  has  learned  to  depend  upon,  working  alone  here  beyond 
the  frontier,  one  expects  to  find  some  burly  minister  of  the  bush- 
whacker type  as  the  only  kind  who  could  confront  the  savage 
conditions. 

After  a  long  day's  narrow-gauge  ride  through  a  nearly  un- 
inhabited country  over  the  continental  divide,  then  half  a  day 
on  a  "mixed  train,"  the  only  train — alighting  at  Farmington, 
New  Mexico,  the  farthest  southwestern  outpost  of  the  dare- 
devil Denver'  &  Rio  Grande  system,  one  is  surprised  that  he 
does  not  see  his  expected  missionary.  Perhaps  there  has  been 
a  hitch  in  the  carrying  of  the  message  by  the  bi-weekly  horse- 
back mail.  When  the  knot  of  frontiersmen  has  been  looked  over 
and  hope  is  abandoned,  a  delicate  looking  gentleman,  who 
might  appropriately  be  the  occupant  of  the  chair  of  belles-lettres 

12 


in  Boston  or  Cambridge,  modestly  presents  himself.  Perhaps 
the  hesitancy  has  been  caused  by  some  disillusionment  on  his 
part,  too. 

Soon  the  Field  Secretary  and  Lee  I.  Thayer,  missionary  to 
the  Navahos,  are  on  congenial  terms,  jogging  along  under  the 
white  canvas  cover  of  the  missionary  wagon  behind  "Peter"  and 


REV.     LEE      I.     TRAYER     AND     HIS     WIFE.  TWO     OF     THE 
HEROIC     MISSIONARIES 


"Lizzie."  Our  Navaho  horses  are  several  degrees  larger  than 
the  Society's  ponies  in  Porto  Rico.  Still  they  are  small  loco- 
motives for  the  long  trek  through  desert  sands  and  deep,  un- 
bridged  arroyos.  At  the  end  of  the  first  afternoon,  having 
forded  the  San  Juan  River  twice,  with  water  into  the  wagon 
box,  in  order  to  visit  a  Methodist  mission  (no  necessity  for 

13 


sprinkling),  we  reach  the  edge  of  things  including  supper  and 
lodging  at  a  frontier  Mormon  cabin.  While  the  horses  rest  we 
walk  in  the  dark  to  a  Presbyterian  mission,  some  say  a  mile  and 
a  half,  some  say  two  and  a  half,  and  some  say  four  miles,  and 
back.  No  wonder  that  we  miss  the  road  and  that  Indian 
schoolboy  scouts  are  sent  out  to  find  us,  for  the  hospitable  mis- 
sionary ladies  have  heard  of  our  coming  and  have  kept  a  supper 
waiting  for  us.  Their  cheerful  lantern  makes  the  way  back 
brighter. 

At  dawn  we  ford  the  San  Juan  again,  leaving  the  last  traces 
of  civilization  and  plunging  into  the  riverless,  treeless,  house- 
less reservation.  One  butte  after  another  rising  above  the 
horizon  guides  our  way.  But  all  day  long  Ship  Rock  is  in 
sight,  as  well  as  more  distant  mountains.  During  the  forenoon 
it  looms  like  a  vast  pile  of  Gothic  architecture,  but  late  in  the 
afternoon  when  only  the  upper  peaks  are  visible,  they  look  so 
like  two  sails  of  a  ship  on  the  horizon  that  you  fairly  expect  to 
detect  them  pitching  with  the  motion  of  their  invisible  hull. 

What  communings  by  the  way  concerning  nature  and  man, 
concerning  scripture  and  science,  concerning  thought,  both  oldest 
and  latest.  At  noon,  by  one  of  the  infrequent  springs,  our 
gentle  thinker  quickly  prepares  a  piping  hot  luncheon  out  of 
abundant  equipment  in  the  unobtrusive  box  attached  to  the 
dashboard — so  attached  that  when  removed  it  leaves  no  mark 
or  mar,  but  when  in  place  and  the  cover  turned  back  it  is  a 
lunch  table  in  just  the  right  relation  to  the  wagon  seat.  He  did 
it. 

Here  in  a  small  way  emerges  what  later  appears  in  a  large 
way  in  everything  about  the  mission  station  and  the  mission 
methods — common  sense  (so  uncommon)  to  the  degree  of  ir- 
resistible manual  efficiency  combined  with  a  scholar's  interest  in 
language,  learning,  and  in  all  the  ethereal  realms  of  life,  to- 
gether with  intense  missionary  zeal  and  longing  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  heathen  nation  into  the  midst  of  whose  habitation  he 
has  thrown  himself.  At  one  juncture  a  plumber  was  brought 
from  the  nearest  town,  two  days'  journey  each  way,  who  looked 
the  situation  over  and  gave  verdict  that  the  job  to  be  done  was 
impossible.  After  four  days  more  in  getting  this  expert  back  to 
the  cover  of  a  tool-house  and  bill-heads,  our  missionary  himself 
did  the  complicated,  impossible  plumbing! 

To  create  the  possibility  and  the  platform  for  his  work  of 
preaching,  teaching,  writing,  counselling  and  doctoring,  our  mis- 

14 


CHILDREN     OF    Ol'R     MISSION    SCHOOI 


sionary  has  had  to  do  tree-felling,  logging,  stone-laying,  car- 
pentering, joining,  roofing,  plastering,  painting,  paper-hanging, 
teaming,  farming,  blacksmithing,  cabinet-making,  shoemaking 
and  even  plumbing,  to  say  nothing  of  bookkeeping  and  no  end 
of  Yankee  invention.  With  all  this  to  do  he  learned  the 
language  in  his  first  two  years  so  as  to  preach  in  Navaho  at  both 
services  the  first  Sunday  of  his  third  year.  With  some  promis- 
ing inquirers  already,  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  that  we 
may  have  a  Navaho  church  in  much  less  time  than  it  took  to 
gather  our  first  church  in  Burma  or  in  some  of  the  American 
Indian  tribes  where  we  now  have  most  flourishing  churches. 
Denison  University — he  is  a  Buckeye  of  course — and  Rochester 
Seminary,  ought  to  be  proud  to  turn  out  (not  in  the  sense  in 
which  David  Brainerd  was  "turned  out"  of  Yale)  even  one 
man  in  a  thousand  who  can  go  into  a  physical  and  spiritual 
desert  and  do  the  kind  of  work  which  Lee  I.  Thayer  is  doing 
at  Two  Gray  Hills. 

Long  after  dark  with  its  December  chill  on  this  high  plateau, 
we  reached  the  mission  station  built  of  adobe  and  logs.  What 
a  glowing  spot  it  is  amid  the  cold  and  darkness  of  Navaho- 
land. 

At  this  point  one  is  introduced  to  a  large  part  of  the  secret 
of  the  brave  work  at  Two  Gray  Hills.  It  is  a  cheerful,  refined, 

15 


YA7.-YAH,     NAVAHO     CIK 


thoroughly  practical  and  intensely  sympathetic  home  life.  In 
other  words  it  is  Mrs.  Lee  I.  Thayer.  First  of  all  the  home  is 
radiant  with  domestic  affection,  next  it  is  aglow  with  missionary 
activity.  In  the  forenoon  ten  little  Indian  children  are  taught 
the  English  language  and  are  given  elementary  instruction 
through  that  medium.  Mrs.  Thayer  learned  the  art  of  teaching 
in  a  State  which  a  few  years  ago  was  ranked  by  an  expert  as 
foremost  in  that  art,  Indiana.  Before  the  day  is  done  Mr. 
Thayer  gives  these  little  Indians  a  Bible  lesson  aided  by  picture 
charts  which  he  has  ingeniously  put  together  to  tell  the  whole 

16 


biblical  story.  Then  he  talks  to  them  awhile  in  their  mother 
tongue.  He  is  making  his  own  dictionary  and  grammar  of 
Navaho  speech,  using  an  up-to-date  card  catalogue  system. 
Only,  dear  city  friend,  instead  of  buying  his  appliances  at  some 
library  fixture  store,  he  makes  them  with  his  own  hands. 

During  the  day  there  will  be  a  number  of  Indian  visitors, 
especially  to  the  mill  room.  Indian  corn  is  the  staple  article 
of  food  in  Navaho- land.  The  custom  of  the  country  is  for 
women  and  children  to  grind  by  rubbing  it  between  two  stones. 
Our  missionary  has  installed  large  coffee-milis,  two  of  them,  of 
the  simple  kind  used  in  retail  grocery  stores.  It  is  a  great  boon 
to  the  natives  to  bring  corn  in  their  blankets  and  run  it  through 
these  wonderful  machines.  Hence  there  is  grinding  nearly  all 
day  long. 

When  the  boarding  school  was  to  be  established  the  mis- 
sionary built  a  log  addition,  an  "L"  to  the  adobe  house.  It 
has  a  partition  half  way  to  the  ceiling.  On  one  side  of  this 
partition,  in  their  three  beds  sleep  the  nine  little  Indian  girls, 
on  the  other  side  of  it  sleep  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thayer  so  as  to  be 
right  at  hand  in  case  of  need.  If  you  could  look  into  the 
homes  (?)  from  which  these  children  have  been  brought  you 
could  better  imagine  the  constant  care  which  their  physical  and 
spiritual  civilization  entails  upon  the  missionaries. 

The  visiting  Secretary  had  the  whole  of  the  main  house  to 
himself  and  slept  so  well  in  its  comfortable  guest  room  that 
he  was  not  awakened  even  by  a  gunshot  fired  in  the  cellar.  The 
marauder  was  instantly  dispatched  and  sweetly,  it  ought  to  be 
added,  for  it  was  a  "pole  cat."  One  large  room,  the  best  in 
the  house,  next  to  the  school  room  and  the  chapel,  is  a  social 
room  for  the  Indians.  Its  front  door  is  never  locked  day  or 
night. 

When  Sunday  comes,  Indians  gather  from  near  and  far,  five 
miles  being  not  far  and  fifteen  miles  not  too  far.  In  the  fore- 
noon they  have  an  illustrated  Bible  story.  Then  comes  a  lunch 
of  crackers  and  coffee  made  too  simple  to  be  a  bid  for  attend- 
ance. After  that  is  another  service  at  which  the  personal  gospel 
message  is  pressed.  The  day  I  was  there  the  most  progressive 
farmer  in  the  region  stayed  after  the  second  service  for  a  long 
talk  with  the  missionary  about  starting  on  the  Jesus  Road. 

The  missionaries  are  giving  themselves  to  these  heathen  with 
an  abandon  which,  if  fully  understood,  would  be  almost  ap- 

17 


palling  not  only  to  our  church  members  who  are  living  carefully 
sheltered  lives  but  even  to  those  who  have  life  in  its  roughest 
forms.  An  Indian  mother  brought  her  daugh*.  r,  Asian  Yazza, 
with  a  fatal  disease  to  a  hut  half  mile  from  the  mission  house 
that  Mrs.  Thayer  might  minister  to  her  for  days.  When  the 
end  came,  the  child  was  put  outside  to  die  according  to  Navaho 
custom.  Otherwise  native  superstition  would  have  required  the 
hut  to  be  torn  down.  In  the  morning  word  was  sent  to  Mrs. 
Thayer.  Mr.  Thayer  had  been  obliged  to  go  to  town,  four 
days  away,  on  a  missionary  errand.  Could  there  be  Christian 
burial?  The  Indians  do  not  make  even  rude  coffins  nor  do 
they  dig  graves.  So  our  missionary's  wife,  naturally  as  far 
from  doing  such  things  as  any  lady  who  reads  these  lines, 
manages  somehow  with  saw  and  hammer  to  make  a  casket,  line 
it  with  white  cloth,  then  with  scant  assistance  from  the  mother, 
digs  a  grave  in  the  hard  soil.  These  are  the  easier  parts  of 
the  self-imposed  task.  Our  little  missionary  lady  takes  the 
corpse  of  the  thirteen-year-old  child  in  her  arms  and  brings  it 
the  long  half  mile,  including  a  necessary  descent  into  a  deep 
arroyo  and  the  steep  climb  out  of  it,  to  the  mission  house. 
When  with  prayer  she  has  given  the  child  Christian  burial  her 
own  hands  must  fill  the  grave.  Does  one  remember  much  that 
was  more  astounding  in  the  heroism  of  early  missionaries  to  the 
heathen  anywhere?  On  a  question  like  that,  perhaps  I  have 
some  right  to  make  intelligent  answer.  I  freely  say,  "No,  not 
anywhere." 

The  Chicago  Baptist  Training  School  for  missionary  workers 
as  well  as  Rochester  Theological  Seminary  has  a  right  to  glory 
in  the  Two  Gray  Hills  Mission.  Mrs.  Thayer  was  Ida  Black- 
well  at  the  school  in  1901.  One  of  the  many  good  things  to 
the  credit  of  the  Baptist  Young  People's  Union  of  America  is 
that  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Thayer  and  Miss  Blackwell  be- 
gan, at  one  of  its  annual  conventions,  to  which  they  were  both 
delegates  the  year  it  was  held  in  Milwaukee. 

Before  knowing  the  story  of  Astan  Yazza — not  one  word 
of  which  did  I  ever  hear  from  Mrs.  Thayer — I  said,  "You 
ought  to  have  another  worker  here  for  the  sake  of  company 
when  Mr.  Thayer  is  away  or  in  case  of  serious  illness  or  other 
emergency."  What  was  the  answer  to  this?  Remember  that 
it  comes  from  a  dainty  little  lady  who  has  been  given  unmistak- 
able reason  to  fear  some  of  the  Indians,  and  whose  nearest 

18 


NAVAHO  MOTHER  AND  CHILD 


white  neighbor  lives  four  miles  away,  with  no  other  nearer  than 
twenty  miles,  and  after  these  two,  no  more  short  of  forty  miles. 
Remember  that  it  is  forty  miles  to  a  doctor  and  that  it  is 
seventy  miles  to  a  town,  a  telephone,  a  telegraph  office  or  a 
railroad.  Such  desolate  and  difficult  miles,  too!  What  would 
you  say  to  the  suggestion  of  company  in  such  a,  situation?  This 

19 


is  what  she  said:  "We  ought  to  enlarge  the  school  and  be 
raising  up  some  boys  as  well  as  girls  to  make  Christian  homes 
by  and  by.  If  we  can  do  that  I  shall  be  delighted  to  have 
another  worker;  but  merely  for  the  sake  of  company  it  is  not 
necessary." 

I  want  to  leave  it  to  the  men  and  women  of  our  churches  to 
say  whether  or  not  such  workers  shall  be  reinforced.  It  seems 
to  me,  however,  that  it  might  be  well  to  take  our  dearest  loved 
ones  by  the  hand  before  we  say  and  then  to  say  it  on  our  knees 
in  the  presence  of  Him  who  gave  His  life  for  us. 

Seventy  miles  with  macadam  roads  and  automobiles  is  not 
far,  but  with  no  roads,  deep  sands,  deeper  arroyos,  a  white 
canvas  wagon  and  Indian  ponies,  it  is  a  long  way.  When  we 
came  out  we  brought  Carrie,  the  oldest  pupil,  the  first  day's 
journey  to  see  the  kind  doctor  at  Tohatchie,  the  Government 
Indian  School,  which  is  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  Ross,  a  good 
Baptist  brother.  The  second  day  we  discovered  that  even  in 
New  Mexico,  when  seven  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  Decem- 
ber is  not  as  pleasant  as  May.  A  driving  snow  storm  met  us  at 
the  outset.  A  number  of  wagon  trails,  all  more  or  less  faint, 
cross  near  Tohatchie.  They  were  fast  obscured  by  snow,  while 
mountains,  buttes  and  all  other  waymarks  were  blotted  out.  It 
drove  so  sharply,  head  on,  that  our  ponies  veered  and  the  ques- 
tion arose  whether  they  and  we  could  weather  it  and  come  to 
port.  The  thoughtful  missionary  had  provided  the  tenderfoot 
with  arctic  overshoes,  an  extra  pair  of  trousers,  and  a  thick 
woolen  muffler.  Two  suits  of  underclothing,  gloves  and  socks, 
together  with  newspapers  under  the  heavy  overcoat,  a  thick 
Navaho  blanket  and  a  tarpaulin  lap-robe,  with  a  lighted  lantern 
at  our  feet,  kept  us  from  getting  too  cold  to  talk  of  things  human 
and  divine.  No  chilblains  followed  on  the  tender  feet  nor 
other  result  more  serious  than  a  four  weeks'  bronchial  cold 
which  in  no  way  interfered  with  scheduled  work.  For  once, 
just  once,  the  whole  experience  was  to  be  coveted. 

But  the  next  day,  as  the  missionary  started  back  over  that 
frozen  desert  road,  his  wagon  loaded  down  with  supplies  for 
the  distant  mission  station,  I  stood  and  watched  the  white  wagon 
as  long  as  it  could  be  seen,  with  a  lump  in  my  throat  not  caused 
by  the  cold.  As  I  write  the  mist  comes  back  to  my  eyes  at  the 
thought  of  such  heroism  as  I  was  beholding  in  those  tender  souls 

20 


who  live  month  after  month  for  Christ's  sake  and  the  sake  of 
the  stolid  barbarians  at  Two  Gray  Hills.  The  two  gray  hills 
are  hidden  behind  two  bright  summits  of  Ghristlike  devotion. 

IV.       IS  IT  WORTH  WHILE 

Is  it  worth  while  to  make  such  sacrifices?  The  great  and  the 
final  answer  is  that  Christ  gave  his  life  for  the  unworthy.  An- 
other is  that  our  overwhelming  white  race  in  the  United  States 
is  under  peculiar  obligations  to  the  remnants  of  the  red  race. 
The  Navahos  are  the  largest  unbroken  tribe  left.  Though 
almost  in  the  path  of  early  Roman  Catholic  missions,  they  never 


GAMBLING THE     PREVALENT    VICE     OF     THE     NAVAHOS 

have  been  even  nominally  Christianized.  They  are  less  demor- 
alized by  vicious  whites  than  are  other  tribes.  They  are  heathen 
pure  and  simple.  They  have  sturdy  hearts  which  make  them  at 
the  same  time  harder  to  reach  and  better  worth  reaching  than 
most  aborigines. 

F.  M.  Pruddens  says:  "Altogether  they  are  among  the 
most  interesting  of  the  aborigines  who  live  in  the  old  fashion, 
hold  to  the  old  deities,  and  maintain  a  degree  of  self-respect 
and  independence  in  the  face  of  the  blighting  influences  of  civili- 
zation which  is  noteworthy  and  admirable." 

The  Navahos  are  almost  free  from  intemperance.  May 
prohibition  on  the  Reservation  be  ever  in  force.  Gambling  has 

21 


TYPICAL    NAVAHO     YOUNG    MAN 


been  one  of  their  besetting  sins,  so  much  so  that  teachers  have 
felt  obliged  to  take  away  Sunday-school  picture  cards  from 
children  because  they  used  them  for  gambling.  Love  for  the 
hazard,  however,  was  so  deep  in  the  blood  and  breeding  of  the 
little  ones  that  they  managed  it  with  pebbles.  Mr.  Wm.  T. 
Shelton,  the  Indian  Agent  in  the  Northern  part  of  the  Reserva- 
tion, is  earnestly  endeavoring  to  dissuade  the  Navahos  from  this 
vice.  He  has  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  great  improvement. 

In  the  matter  of  trustworthiness,  these  Indians  stand  high. 
A  man  who  for  fifteen  years  has  been  trading  first  and  last  with 

22 


all  the  tribes  west  of  the  Mississippi,  tells  me  that  of  them  all,  as 
men  with  whom  to  deal,  the  Navahos  are  the  most  satisfactory. 
"If  they  promise  to  bring  you  a  hundred  sound  sheep  at  a  given 
time,  a  full  hundred  will  be  there  on  the  dot  and  every  one  of 
them  sound.  But,"  he  added,  "the  next  minute  they  will  let 
you  turn  around  and  pick  out  another  hundred  for  yourself  with- 
out any  warning  as  to  the  unsoundness  of  the  lot.*'  Taken  all 
in  all,  so  far  as  I  can -learn  from  reading  considerable  printed 
testimony  as  well  as  from  conversation  with  close  observers  of 
many  sorts,  these  heath-men  rank  with  the  best  quality  of 
heathen. 

In  1869  the  Government  gave  the  Navahos  a  few  thousand 
sheep  and  goats.  Since  then  the  people  have  provided  for  them- 
selves. When,  not  long  ago,  there  was  a  season  of  unusual 
drought  and  consequent  suffering  it  was  proposed  to  give  them 
Government  aid.  A  committee  of  chiefs  requested  the  Govern- 
ment not  to  do  this  lest  Navahos  become  like  so  many  other 

23 


Indians,  paupers.  "The  noble  red  man"  of  tradition  is  not 
altogether  a  myth,  as  you  can  readily  see  if  you  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  history,  the  character,  and  the  living  faces 
of  the  Navahos. 

Besides  ourselves  four  denominations — Christian  Reform, 
Presbyterian,  Methodists  North  and  South — and  two  inde- 
pendent missions,  are  working  at  eleven  stations  for  the  20,000 
(one  Government  worker  among  them  says  30,000)  Navahos. 
The  entire  Reserve  has  been  divided  up  among  these  missions 
and  the  responsibility  laid  on  them  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
tribe  in  this  generation.  The  field  of  our  own  mission  is  some 
forty  miles  square.  Our  missionary  is  now  preaching  in  the 
Navaho  language  and  hopes  soon  to  cover  the  whole  field  in 
systematic  visitation.  Certainly  we  may  expect  that  very  soon 
every  Navaho  for  whom  we  as  Baptists  are  held  responsible 
may  have  the  gospel  intelligibly  presented  to  him  and  be  lov- 
ingly urged  to  enter  the  Jesus  Road,  which  leads  to  the  Father's 
House. 

A   FORWARD  MOVE 

/N   order   to   get    closer  to  a  larger  number  of  the  rising 
generation  of  ^favahos,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thayer  are  non> 
stationed  at  Keams  Canon,  Ariz.,  near  to  a  Government 
School.     This  also  enables  the  missionary  to  have  an  oversight  of 
the  Hopi  churches  not  far  au>ay.      The  noble  women  who  have 
created   the   Hopi   mission    have    long   been   pleading  for   an 
ordained  missionary. 


THE  NIGHT  &  CAY  PHESS.  N.  V. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
PH8.5 


